Another day, another lack of progress in solving the impasse over the FY2014 budget.   There was some good news, as most DOD civilians got to go back to work today and industry furloughs at two companies consequently were reduced, but on the other hand, almost 60 percent of employees at the Aerospace Corporation are being sent home.

Lockheed Martin still is furloughing 2,400 workers, but that is fewer than the 3,000 announced last week. The company said 2,100 of the 2,400 work on civilian agency programs and the rest on DOD programs; they are in 27 states, but mostly in the Washington, D.C. area.

The reduction in Lockheed Martin furloughs was possible because of DOD’s broad interpretation of a week-old law that allowed most DOD civilian workers to return to work today.  Similarly, United Technologies cancelled a furlough of thousands of workers it announced last week.  Those employees were going to be furloughed because Defense Contract Management Agency inspectors were furloughed and unable to inspect manufacturing processes as required.  Under the new law, however, the inspectors have been recalled so manufacturing can resume.

The news was not so good for the Aerospace Corporation, though.  A Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) that assures mission success for Air Force space programs (e.g., launches), Aerospace started a partial work shutdown on October 3, with 2,000 of its 3,500 workers sent home.  Only those working on “excepted mission critical tasks” may continue working.  Aerospace’s President and CEO Wanda Austin issued a statement today reassuring employees that “corporate senior leadership is fully engaged with our customers to minimize the adverse impacts” from the shutdown and ready to “immediately take action to bring people back to work as soon as we are permitted to do so.”

Other aerospace companies do not appear to have issued press releases about the status of their workers, but on Friday Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) President Marion Blakey warned about the impact of an extended shutdown on the aerospace industry, calling the shutdown “a tragic mistake.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and President Obama continued their verbal sparring matches today.   Reid and Obama are challenging Boehner to bring a “clean” Continuing Resolution (CR) — one that is devoid of political issues and simply funds the government — to the floor of the House for a vote.  Boehner said yesterday there are an insufficient votes to pass such a bill, but Boehner and Obama insist there are.   Obama said today that Boehner should “prove” whether he’s right or not by permitting the bill to come to a vote.  At the moment, there are 232 Republicans and 200 Democrats in the House (with three vacancies).   If all Democrats voted yes, 17 Republicans would also have to vote yes in order for the bill to pass.  The President and Reid believe that at least that many Republicans would, in fact, vote yes.

Boehner also said yesterday that he will not bring a clean bill to the floor to raise the debt limit.  That seems to contradict a statement he made last week asserting that he would not let the nation default on its debt.  The Treasury Department says the nation will exhaust its ability to pay its bills about October 17.   As many point out, raising the debt limit simply allows the government to pay the bills it already has incurred; it does not allow for any additional spending.  However, some Republicans having been seeking Democratic concessions on future spending in return for their votes to raise the debt limit and it now appears that others may be trying to tie the debt limit issue to the debate over the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) as well. 

One can only hope that more productive discussions among the parties are taking place behind the scenes than in front of the television cameras.

UPDATE, October 7, 2013:  The NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board meeting on Oct. 10-11 has been added, along with a note about the Hosted Payload Summit, which apparently is on track.

ORIGINAL STORY, October 6.  The following events may be of interest in the week ahead, though with the government shutdown, it’s really unclear as to which of these will actually take place.   The House and Senate will be in session hopefully trying to find a solution to the impasse.

During the Week

There is no sign of compromise at the moment, so how long the government shutdown will continue is anyone’s guess.  The House and Senate will be in session this week as they were last week, but no one seems to be giving ground so far.

The following list of events of interest, therefore, is tentative.   The government-sponsored meetings of advisory committees surely will be cancelled if the shutdown continues, but since their websites are down, there is no way to confirm that.  Meetings and conferences sponsored by non-government organizations seem to be proceeding with revised agendas that work around the lack of government speakers. 

The American Astronautical Society has done an impressive job of substituting non-government speakers for its Von Braun Symposium in Huntsville, for example, and it will webcast the first morning (Tuesday, October 8) of the conference.  This week’s American Astronomical Society’s Division on Planetary Science (DPS) meeting in Denver also is on track, although “agency night” on Tuesday is likely to be affected if the shutdown continues.   The website for the Hosted Payload Summit in Washington does not provide any information about its status; the agenda has a mix of government and private sector speakers.

Sunday-Friday, October 6-11

• American Astronomical Society Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS), Denver, CO  TAKING PLACE with modified agenda

Monday-Thursday, October 7-10

• American Astronautical Society Von Braun Symposium, Huntsville, AL  WILL TAKE PLACE with modified agenda
  • October 7 is an evening reception; October 10 is a post-conference tour
  • October 8-9 are conference sessions; the morning of October 8 will be webcast

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 8-9

• NASA Applied Sciences Advisory Committee, Washington, DC  ALMOST CERTAIN TO BE CANCELLED IF SHUTDOWN CONTINUES

Wednesday, October 9

• Hosted Payload Summit, Grand Hyatt Washington, Washington, DC, 7:30 am – 5:00 pm ET  CONFERENCE ORGANIZER CONFIRMS THIS WILL TAKE PLACE

Wednesday-Thursday, October 9-10

• FAA COMSTAC, Washington, DC ALMOST CERTAIN TO BE CANCELLED IF SHUTDOWN CONTINUES

Thursday-Friday, October 10-11

• NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), NRC Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, DC  WILL TAKE PLACE WITH MODIFIED AGENDA

Friday, October 11

• NASA Aerospace Safety Adv Panel (ASAP), Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 10:00-11:00 am Central Time (11:00 am – 12:00 pm Eastern)  ALMOST CERTAIN TO BE CANCELLED IF SHUTDOWN CONTINUES

 

 

 

While there was no progress today in resolving the issues that led to the government shutdown, federal employees and defense contractors got a little bit of good news. 

A large portion of civilian DOD employees are being called back to work on Monday and some defense contractors may also be able to be paid.  Separately,  the House passed a bill to ensure that furloughed federal employees will eventually be paid.

The House and Senate both were in session today and both have now gone home until Monday.  The House continued to work on several narrowly focused bills to fund specific federal activities.  Senate Democrats and President Obama have rejected that tactic overall, insisting that the entire government must be allowed to return to work.  

However, on the eve of the shutdown last Monday, all parties agreed to a bill through which military servicemembers will be paid during the shutdown rather than having to wait until the situation is resolved.   That law, the Pay Our Military Act, included other language and today Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that DOD lawyers have interpreted it broadly to allow Hagel to call back to work a large portion of the 350,000-400,000 civilian DOD employees who were furloughed.  The law also allows the Secretary of Defense to pay contractors providing support to members of the Armed Services in active service.

Hagel is recalling civilian workers under a provision of the law that says civilian personnel “whom the Secretary … determines are providing support to members of the Armed Forces” may be paid.  Some news sources are reporting that he is recalling everyone, but his memo does not say that.  Instead Hagel writes that “I fervently hope that the time will be short until I can recall all employees” of DOD.   He also points out that the law allows personnel to be paid, but does not provide funds to purchase equipment or supplies, for example, so if the shutdown continues for an extended period, the time may come when “workers are unable to do their work [and] I will be forced to send them home again.” 

While many DOD civilian employees are being called back to work, there are another 400,000-500,000 furloughed federal employees who are not and have no guarantee of ever being paid.  However, today the House passed the Federal Employee Retroactive Pay Fairness Act by a vote of 407-0 (with 25 members not voting) that says furloughed feds will be paid — eventually.  They will have to wait until the government resumes operations, but if the bill is agreed by the Senate and the President, they can at least rest a little easier that the money will be there at some point.  The Senate adjourned for the day without taking up the bill, but the White House praised it in a Statement of Administration Policy.

As if a government shutdown and looming debt crisis weren’t enough, Washington had a dose of a very different kind of high drama today as a woman took Secret Service and Capitol Hill police on a high speed chase from the White House to Capitol Hill and ultimately was killed by police officers.

The prospects for the House and the Senate reaching any kind of resolution today were slim to begin with, but the mid-afternoon incident that suspended congressional proceedings as the Capitol was placed on lockdown after shots were fired in two locations on the Capitol grounds, contributed to the tension pervading Washington.   As of this hour, authorities have identified the 34-year-old woman from Connecticut who allegedly first tried to enter the White House grounds and then led Secret Service agents on a high speed chase across town to Capitol Hill, but do not know her motive.

Congress resumed operations after the lockdown was lifted and business returned to the current normal of gridlock.  No substantive progress was made on getting the government back to work — many are pointing out the Secret Service and Capitol police officers responding to today’s crisis are all working while not being paid — or dealing with the debt limit.

A couple of interesting developments did occur, however.

• House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) reportedly said that he would not permit the government to default.  At least as important as keeping the government operating is the issue of the debt limit, which Treasury officials expect to reach around October 17.  The fear of a government default worries Wall Street, among others, and Boehner’s statement offers hope that he is willing to bring to the House floor a bill to either suspend or raise the debt limit.   If all Democrats vote for it, only a small percentage of Republican votes are needed for it to pass.  While Boehner prefers to bring bills to the floor only if he knows that a majority of his Republican Caucus will vote yes — the so-called “Hastert rule” after former Speaker Dennis Hastert who reputedly initiated it, though he disavowed it today — he has done so in rare instances.   As a note of caution, however, Boehner also had indicated that he did not want a government shutdown, but in the final analysis, sided with Tea Party Republicans, which led that to result.
• Grover Norquist, who created the pledge that most Republicans have signed that they will never raise taxes and who is dedicated to reducing government spending, publicly criticized Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who is at the center of the government shutdown.  Cruz’s determination to link government funding with delaying or defunding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is why agreement has not been reached to fund the government for a few weeks while debate continues on political issues.  Cruz has been criticized by many fellow Republicans for his tactics, but adding Norquist to the list may give some Republicans relief that if they break with the current Republican stance, they may not be endangering their chances for reelection.  Norquist told Ezra Klein of the Washington Post that Cruz “pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away.”

The challenge ahead, however, was captured by a quote from Tea Party Republican Rep. Martin Stutzman (R-IN), who told The Washington Examiner “We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this [shutdown].  And I don’t know what that even is.”